Grocery Day and Weekly Meal Plan

Grocery Day!

I was so excited when I opened up my Meijer weekly ad and saw they were doing another 10 for 10 sale with the 11th item being free! I save so much money on those ad weeks, and I am also able to stock up on pantry staples to save money down the road.

Here is my meal plan for the week. Keep in mind, I do not plan for lunches, it is never needed due to being plenty of leftovers. In the event of no leftovers, though rare, I will make up mini-meatloaves, egg salad, tuna salad, or similar things to last the week for lunch. I do not assign specific meals to specific days, though I do plan ahead enough that I know on sports nights (twice this week), I will have something quick and easy to make, ready to eat at 5pm in order to be at the volleyball games by 6. Also, some of these occasionally get changed or tweaked... especially dessert. There are times dessert is omitted altogether, or decided on at the last minute.

Dinner Plan
Baked Spaghetti in Garlic Bread
Chili and Cornbread
Mini Taco Pizzas
Sloppy Joe
Hawaiian Chicken Tacos
Coney Dogs
Buffalo Chicken Wraps with Buffalo Slaw

Breakfast Plan:
Pumpkin Yogurt Bread
Eggs Over Easy and Sausage Links
Egg, Sausage, and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches
Biscuits and Gravy
S'mores Pancakes
Apple Cake w/Brown Sugar Glaze
Banana Bread (possibly the same upside down caramel banana bread... it was a hit with my fam!)

Dessert:
Oreo Cream Cheese Dessert
Mini Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies
Pumpkin Pie
Marshmallow Pastry Puffs (popular at Easter, called "Empty Tomb Rolls"
Some kind of Chocolate Chip dessert... I'll settle on a choice later
Mixed Berry Muffins
Jello and Cool Whip

By using mPerks, store coupons, and using the ad specials, I saved a total of $26.60 today, and my total grocery bill for the week was $85.50. This is for a total of 24 meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner plus dessert, and includes three "stand by" meals (egg salad, tuna salad, meatloaf) in case needed or in case I'm not able to get back to the store on the 6th or 7th days.

So if you do the math, I had this weeks meals down to $3.56 per meal for a family of six. If I were to omit dessert ( I know many families don't do dessert for every dinner), I would be at a per meal cost of $3.08.

This meal planning thing is saving me so much money, and it gets easier by the week. It's now a game to me, try to beat my per meal cost every week. I've gone from $6 per meal down to $3.56 per meal in a matter of 6 weeks, so I'm getting there! I know there will be weeks the cost will be a bit higher, but all in all, I'm happy with the way things have been going. I am now considering doing an inventory sheet of my pantry items on hand. It would make my list making so much quicker and easier on grocery day! I can't even count the number of times I went from the computer room to the kitchen today to check for items on hand! I did end up, in the process of scanning my pantry, organizing like items together in my pantry, and ingredients for meals together... it is just so much easier to navigate! Anyone out there keep a pantry inventory and want to give a girl some tips?